Category Archives: Markets That Won’t Clear

Pretty. Worthless. From the WSJ: Currency Chaos in Venezuela Portends Write-Downs The Gentleman Economist once visited Venezuela, enjoying Caracas, Merida, Angel Falls, a quiet Andean village and a jungle adventure involving riverside hammocks and three days in handmade dugout canoes. Being an … Continue reading →

Price reduced? Good news for one third of Americans, but not for Peter Dreier From the NYT: What Housing Recovery? In the New York Times Opinion Pages Peter Dreier (Professor of Politics, Urban and Environmental Policy at Occidental College) bemoans that not … Continue reading →

And if you’re a landlord, vice versa From the NYT: What’s Next, a Bouncer? Let’s see Rent Control for what it really is: a forced subsidy from landlords to tenants, a gift from politicians to renters in return for their votes … Continue reading →

This grandmother sold tickets to a better life. Sorry about the prison term. From the NYT: A Smuggler of Immigrants Dies in Prison, but Is Praised in Chinatown (See previous posts on immigration) The Gentleman Economist has yet to be persuaded … Continue reading →

We’d love to take your $50,000, but we can’t afford it From the S.F. Gate: S.F. landlords offer tenants tempting offers to move out This is what San Francisco rent control has become. 24 years ago, the Reyes family moved into … Continue reading →

It’s so expensive nobody lives there anymore From the SFGate: Airbnb sublets in S.F. land some renters in the doghouse The Gentleman Economist finds San Francisco’s charms appealing: Beautiful coastal topography, including hills, fog, a gorgeous bridge and the country’s largest … Continue reading →

Hoping to make the cut when the wage goes up (Spencer Platt/Getty Images, from the NYT) From the NYT: Minimum Wage Increase Would Have Mixed Effects, C.B.O. Report Says The idea of raising the minimum wage is deeply polarizing in American … Continue reading →

Rent Control: The Solution to, and the Cause of, New York City’s Housing Shortage From the NYT: New York’s Affordable Housing Shortage The New York Times is one of the world’s great English language newspapers and I hope customer demand (or … Continue reading →